Back From Camp

Oh people who stumble onto this blog, it has been too long since my last post. With the busy things of Scout Camp out of the way for now, I should post every week without delay.

Working at camp this year seemed to hold much closer to my heart than it has in previous years. Sure, there were hard moments and lots of changes, but all the chaos and friction just toughened us up more with each passing day. I am homesick for my camp family, so I am even more excited to go to the reunion this winter.

My parents have requested my presence at home as to accommodate my little brother so he won't have to dwell at home alone when our parents are at work and Zach leaves on his mission. Before Camp I lived in a two bedroom apartment with my friends Robbie and Josh. In spite of the "man smell" that surrounded the apartment, I grew fond of waking up and having my gaming friends all in the same room as we wandered the lands of Valoran, Azeroth, and Drenar. Thank goodness the internet keeps my friends close without living close to one another.

I kept up drawing during the summer and even helped my good friend Curtis Cluff beat Cave Story for his first time while retrieving the true ending for completing the game. A hard feat to accomplish, but Curtis and I buckled down and achieved this hard task. Of the pictures I made that summer, one of my favorites is this one:

This picture takes place just before you get to the islands core (I'd get more specific than that, but describing Cave Story parallels trying to explain your favorite television series to someone). I'm currently working in GIMP to get a computerized version, and I hope it turns out well, so expect to see that in the future.

Anyway, that's about all I have for now. I just started a new job at Rooster's Fun Unlimited in the Newgate Mall in Ogden. It's a used game store that franchised off the Logan Fun Unlimited store. Even though I'm not getting too much from the job financially I really enjoy it so far. If you are ever in Ogden, stop by some time!

That's all for today.

A Painting of a Glorious Comic

Just came down to camp for the summer and these last two days have been eventful and filled with meetings and service projects for the camp. Nothing like a good old service project to start of the camping season. So if anyone wishes to contact me at all, be sure to send me a message so I can say hello on the weekends or if I get to a service spot in the camp.

Sundays, as usual down here, are uneventful and filled with dead air after church. Usually I pull out my sketch book or 3DS to play on, but this weekend I finally finished my painting of one of my favorite comics I've drawn. It took me a few days over the last four years to make it, but I finally did it!

The final acrylic painting

The original comic, drawn in my sketch book four years ago and just recently inked in

For those who cannot read the poem on the pictures (in particular, the painting), here it is:

No matter how life changes,

How you act or how you grow,

You always seem to still have fun

With someone that you know,

And even if it may just seem

You both have fall'n apart,

It's really nice to know

You're still similar at heart.

The comic and poem is about my friend Gary and I growing up over the years and how even when we were not around one another we still end up doing virtually the same things.

Over the last week I've felt kind of sad because of the things I needed to face: quitting my job to volunteer at camp, missing those familiar faces at the work place, moving out of my apartment, and even sifting through old photos to find examples for the Photography merit badge and stumbling upon pictures of friends I don't see very often anymore. One thing after another stacked up on my back, and as I faced each one I had to realize hope was still there--hope that I could find the good in every day--and knowledge that we'd still have things in common when we meet again later in life. This hope and knowledge has kept me afloat, and I think this four-year-old comic illustrates that.


I miss you guys--yes, all you guys: old friends, family, teachers, coworkers, and even you friends out there whom I didn't see eye-to-eye with. I miss you, and next time I see you I'll have a sincere smile, and I promise to make it so.

Until next time, fellow mammals. Tootles!

Stone Mask Adventures, The Music Box of Ikana Valley

Stone Mask Adventures, first multi-frame comic

So I couldn't wait any longer, I had to post a comic. I wanted to try and post on Mondays, but seeing how scout camp won't allow me to do that Sunday seems like a great alternative.

Now, I don't expect everyone to understand this comic as its humor is based heavily on in-game scenarios in The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask, so let me give you some background on this series of comics.

The Stone Mask is a mask in Majora's Mask that when you wear it people don't pay attention to you making you essentially invisable to enemies, NPCs, etc. (as the game puts it, you are "as interesting as a stone"). It's a lot like the "None of your Buisness Cloaking Device" from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or those keys that The Doctor hands to people to make them essentially invisible in Doctor Who (Particularly the episode where The Master takes over the world).

With that being said, this comic takes place at the music box house in Ikana Valley where you have to sneek into the house while the little girl that lives in it walks around the valley. If you get spotted by her you have to wait for what feels like forever while she hides in her house until she decides you're gone and comes out again.

Now, I'm sure after all that explaining if you didn't get it before hand I've probably killed the joke by now, and the rest of you are smiling and nodding your heads in agreement. But there you go!

Like I said, I plan on updating on Sundays with

a piece of art of some sort, and I hope you will 

enjoy them. I will continue to post on facebook

when I post here to keep advertising, after all

I do love showing off art, especially funny art.

Until next time!

Visiting Roy High (Seeing Ellsworth)

Yesterday I went to my folk's house and while I was there I was told by my parents had run in to good, old Steven Ellsworth at the store. I hadn't seen him in a while and I decided to rectify that as soon as possible (mainly because I wanted to show off my facial hair, can you really blame me?). So today I went to the old high school after classes were out to say hello to my old mentor/sensei.

Naturally when I arrived at Steve's office he immediately had to leave to a meeting, so I naturally did what any peace-loving, respectful man would do: I doodled on his white board, leaving a terrible pun for him to enjoy for as long as he decides not to erase it. For those of you who know Mr. Ellsworth I think you will get a kick out of it:

Pretty freaking awesome that this only took about 15 minutes! Woot!

I was thinking on the fly since he was only at a short meeting, but I pulled out a great, headache-endusing pun as quick as you could say . . .well, a really long word. To add to the fun, Sir Ellsworth reacted in almost the same way as I drew him to, holding back just enough to keep from giving me the satisfaction that I pinned his reaction right on. Either that or I'm giving myself too much credit, either way I loved it.

We didn't talk about too much other than catching up with one another, but it's always nice to see old faces. That's my blog for today, so I'll see you next time!

First Blog Post for a Man Named Jeremy

Woot!

Hi there everybody, 'tis I, the Jeremy of the Illum clan finally doing something I've wanted to do for a long time coming--making a blog/website that I can share with everyone. Hopefully it will continue to get the attention it needs from me to keep going. So, what better to start off a blog than with something awesome relating to what I designed it for? Probably by giving out free money, but since I have none to give, here is a lovely picture created by yours truely.

The rough draft, inked in

Final version, re-imaged on the computer

For some, these may already look familiar, for others, Stone Mask Adventures is a comic series that I plan to work on in the future. I already have a few of the strips drawn up and I posted one of the images on Facebook. Thank you for reading my first post. One-thousand "thank yous" to you all.

Peace!